Your Lasting Legacy

SPEAKER 02 : 0:01

When we do leave this world, beloved one, what will our legacy be? What will we leave behind? Shalom, beloved. I want to talk to you today about something that many Christians don’t think rightly about. I want to talk to us about our passing and our legacy. First of all, I want to make the point, I think that many Christians have a very wrong perception about the death of loved ones, particularly when their loved ones are believers. Many Christians look at it as such a negative thing when the Bible tells us that the Lord takes His own out of the world to save them and spare them from trouble. Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I remember years ago, I went to my physician for my annual physical, and I talked to my physician just about what was happening in my life, and I let her know that I was leaving in a few days to travel to Haiti to preach the gospel. So a few days had gone by, I’m in Haiti, and all of a sudden, in Haiti, I get a call from my physician. And when I got a call, seeing her number come up on my phone, I realized she wouldn’t be calling me. She knows I’m in Haiti unless something is wrong. So I pick up the phone. It’s my physician. She says to me, Rabbi, she said, I need you to come back in for some blood work. Your blood count was very low and I need to schedule this right away. So she told me a little bit about what she saw in the examination and the blood work that she wanted to investigate more thoroughly. We went ahead and scheduled an appointment. And after we got off the phone, I did some research as to what it meant when my blood count was low and the other information that she had given me, I researched it. And what I saw is that it could indicate cancer. You know what, my beloved friend? When I saw on my phone that that could mean that I had cancer, that was one of the sweetest moments that I ever had because I thought, oh my gosh, I may be getting ready to leave this world and I’m going to be able to rest. I felt so embraced by the love of God. I felt such peace. It was one of the high emotional moments of my life when I felt like my hour of passing from this world into the next might be just around the corner. And I think we should all have an attitude like that about death. I don’t understand why Christians are so tied to this world that they don’t wanna leave. I personally like watching NDE experiences, near-death experiences, where people that have passed, their heart has stopped beating, their body signal is indicating that they’re no longer present, and then they’re brought back to life, or they come back into life in a few minutes, and then they give their testimony about what they had experienced in this NDE experience. There’s a guy that interviews, I think his name is Pastor John Burke. He’s a Christian grounded in the Word. I think his channel might be called Imagine Heaven, but don’t quote me on that. But his whole pathway has been interviewing these people that have had these NDE experiences and then filtering what they say they encountered through God’s Word. He’s grounded in God’s Word. But I have not ever heard a testimony, a Christian testimony of somebody that had an NDE. In other words, they were pronounced clinically dead. They went out of their bodies. They say they encountered the Lord and the age to come. I have not heard one of those people ever say, that they didn’t want to stay in heaven. Not one of them wanted to come back to earth. And so I’m just saying all that introductory today to say that I think that as Christians, many of us have a wrong perception about what death means to us. You know, the apostle Paul came to the end of his life and he said, I have fought the fight. I have run the race. And now there’s laid up for me the crown of righteousness, but not only for me, but for everyone that loves his appearing. So we as Christians need to filter our perception of reality, taking into account that this world is not our home. We have lots of pain in this world, lots of struggles on this earth, but when we get to heaven, there’s going to be no more sorrow, no more suffering, and no more pain. I want to talk to you today about what happens when we do pass, when we do leave this world. And I want to ask ourselves the question today, all of us, myself included, when we do leave this world, beloved one, what will our legacy be? What will we leave behind? A legacy is something that we leave behind in the earth after we’re gone. My wife’s father created a great legacy for his family, the things that he imparted spiritually, financially. He left all that behind with his children, and they’re still being blessed by that today. He’s long gone, he’s passed, but his legacy lives on. So let’s ask ourselves today, what will our legacy be, and how do we build a legacy? Well, first of all, legacies are built, as we all know, through relationships. through the lives that we have sown into. And because of our investing in somebody else’s life, their life is better. You know, I heard it said one time that the benefit of having a father is that you don’t have to start from the ground. When you have a father, you can start from your father’s shoulders. And the same thing is true when we invest in other people’s life. We allow them to build on territory that we’ve already conquered. So when we invest in our children’s life and teach them practical tools for living, we talk to them about finances. Most of all, we talk to them about their relationship with God. We talk to them about how to navigate relationships and handle life. We talk to them about how to handle setbacks and defeats. We help them prepare for the future. And through our investment, through our consul, our children or grandchildren, or others that we’re in relationship with through our family, their life is better because of us. We have invested something in them And so even when we’re gone, you and I, our children, grandchildren, and the loved ones that we’ve sown into, their lives will be better because of us. We will have left an imprint in them that remains. That is a legacy. We get testimonies all the time. I just received a testimony. It was a beautiful testimony. A woman that wrote in to Discovering the Jewish Jesus, and she said, Rabbi, you’re the only one my children will listen to. I have a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old, and you’re the only teacher and preacher they will listen to. They love the sound of your calm voice. So for me, I get joy out of that. I get simcha out of that because I’m blessing these young people. And even when I’m gone, their lives will have been enriched because of me. And their lives hopefully will have been set on a trajectory to some degree because of what they received through my life. And so every relationship that you sow into, you never even know the littlest thing that you do sometimes when you share your love for Jesus with that person at the grocery store, with your, whoever it might be, your dentist, whoever, you say something and it creates a spark. The person takes notice. You might be a small part of the chain that actually led them to their salvation. That will have been… a legacy for you.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:19

You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. And before Rabbi Schneider continues his teaching, he has a special message to share with all of us.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:29

Greetings in Messiah. One thing that perhaps some of you have thought about but never taken action on is creating or upgrading your will or trust. I want to encourage you, go to our website. We have a free tool there. Just hit wills and estates and we can help you update or create your will or estate trust gift. Listen, God bless you. I love you. Many of us have honored the Lord while we’re living with our finances. Let’s carry that over and remember the Lord with our finances when we pass by creating a will and estate so that finances can go to the work of the kingdom.

SPEAKER 01 : 9:06

What a meaningful way to honor God with our finances this year. And if you feel the Lord leading you to create a free will, visit us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. It’s free for you whether you support us or not. Now let’s return to Rabbi as he continues his teaching.

SPEAKER 02 : 9:28

I remember years ago, I was working, before I was in full-time ministry, I was working in financial services, and there was a guy that he was the chief producer in this organization that I worked for, and I worked for a top-notch organization. And I remember all the team came together one day, about 10 of us, and all of a sudden I started praising Jesus, and I felt like I was totally rejected. I mean, they didn’t react at all to my praising Jesus. It was like they had deaf ears to everything I had to say. But years later, approximately 10 years later, when I was now in full-time ministry, I was ministering in a small church in a small town in rural Ohio. And I got to the service where I was going to be preaching that Sunday. And I set up my things. You know, I had cassette tapes that we made available, et cetera, of different ones of my teaching. And the pastor came out. He said, hey, just continue to set up your display here. And I’ve got somebody that called. They said they want to be at the service today and they don’t have a ride. So I’m going to go pick this person up. So lo and behold, the pastor walks out the door of the church. I continue to set things up. 15, 20 minutes later, the pastor comes in the door. Who does he come in the door with? One of the guys that worked in that financial service company that I work for, that was together when I was praising Jesus, one of those 10 guys, he was there. The pastor brought him there. Why did the pastor bring him there? Because the guy ended up selling drugs, wound up in jail, no longer had a car. But when he was in jail, he remembered that day that I was lifting up Jesus and witnessing to that group of 10 salespeople. And as a result of my witness to him, when he was in jail, God brought it to his remembrance. He gave his life to the Lord. Now he was walking with the Lord. He had heard that I was going to be ministering in the church that morning. And so he called the church and got a ride to the service. When I pass on, he’s going to be part of my legacy. And so I want to encourage you, beloved, you can make an impact in the earth through your relationships. Your legacy is the individuals that you affect through your love, through your witness, through your kindness while you’re on earth that continue to live on in the world after you’re gone. The second way we leave a legacy in the earth, beloved ones, is through the passing down of our finances. The Bible tells us in the book of Proverbs, chapter 13, verse 22, this. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s Listen again, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. So we leave a legacy in the earth when we sell financially into somebody else’s life and they benefit from our financial investment in their lives even after we are gone. But to have this concept and to have this perspective of making somebody else’s life better because we’ve made a financial investment in their lives at our passing, we’re talking about a legacy that’s created at our passing, we really have to gain a long-term perspective of our finances. Because some people, they only think about everything they can get right now. And I’ve even met people that have the mantra, they have the philosophy that they want to spend all their money while they’re in earth and not leave a cent behind. And that’s the way they live. That’s the way they think. I want to spend it all. I don’t want anything to be left over. That is a very narcissistic mindset, as we all know. A narcissist is someone who is completely self-focused. We need to understand, beloved, if we’re going to have a mindset to create a legacy with our finances when we leave this world, we need to really understand that ultimately God really does own everything. We might say, yeah, the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Yeah, we know God owns everything. We say that, but is our heart really surrendered to that? Because when our heart is really surrendered to the reality that ultimately God’s the owner of everything, It will change the way we plan for our future financially. It will change the way that we use our finances while we’re on earth and also affect what we do with our finances when we pass so that we can create a legacy in the earth for our lives for the kingdom of God at our passing. The scripture says, from him, to him, and through him are all things. Ultimately, the Lord is the owner of everything in the earth. I love Psalm 24, verse 1. The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains. Everything ultimately belongs to the Lord. We don’t think like that because we buy something on Amazon, right? It arrives at our doorstep and, you know, we put the clothes on or whatever it is. We think it’s ours. But that’s a very, very small, narrow perception of the big picture. Ultimately, everything belongs to the Lord. For example, think about property. We might think, well, we own this piece of property, those of you that own homes. Well, I own this property. But do you really own that property? That property, that land or that house that you call your own, that land that that house is on, it was bought and sold probably many times before you, quote, became the owner of it. To say it another way, you and I might own the deed to the property for a few years, but then it passes on and it passes on to someone else and it passes on to someone else. And ultimately, the owner of the land that our house is set on, it belongs to the Lord. Why? Because He created the land. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. We need to really understand that everything belongs to the Lord. And when we understand God’s glory in the earth, that everything belongs to God, from him, to him, and through him are all things, we’re going to honor him with our financial resources when we pass, just because we want to honor the creator from whom are all things. I remember some time back, I was looking at some minnows in the water. You know, I was on this river. And I looked into the water and I saw the beauty of this brackish water. And I saw the beautiful life that was in the water, the minnows spinning around. And when I got done being out in nature like that, there was nothing that anybody could have done to offend me or hurt my mood because I was so high on the glory of God that I saw in creation. His glory was so much bigger than all my puny problems. There wasn’t anything in the world that anybody could have done to offend me. God owns the earth. His glory, beloved, is through the entire world. And we need to release our finances to the one that created all things because from him, once again, to him and through him, everything belongs. Now, when we think about carrying this concept on of honoring the Lord with our finances at our passing, creating a legacy gift at our passing, I want you to consider what Yeshua said. He said, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy or where thieves break in and steal. but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth or rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So we want to think about how are we using our resources and are we sowing financially into the kingdom of heaven? Because Jesus said, what we’re going to reap, he said, what we sow. And so many of us consider that we should honor the Lord with our finances while we’re living, we tithe, we give offerings, but have we thought this through to the end of our life that we want to honor the Lord with our finances and our offerings when we pass? Jesus said this at the end of his ministry. He said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that I command you and lo, I’m with you always, even to the end of the age. Jesus’s mandate to the church is to go into all the world, preach the gospel, making disciples of all nations, and we want to make sure that we’re empowering ministries that are doing this to continue on after we’re gone through our legacy gifts. Do you know, beloved ones, that more than half of Americans do not even have a will? This is Make a Will Month. I want to encourage you, if you’ve never thought this through before, or if you’ve never taken action, I want to humbly ask you just to still yourself for a moment. and ask yourself, have you thought through what will happen with your resources when you pass, when you leave this world? I know I’m talking to most of you. You wanna honor the Lord with your resources when you pass. You wanna have a will or a trust in place where you can designate a portion of your estate, what you have left to your resources. You want to designate some of that to a Christian ministry so that the great commission that Jesus spoke of, go into all the world and preach the gospel, making disciples of all nations, will be fulfilled. Many of you, in your heart, you are saying yes to that, but let me ask you, Do you have a will or do you need to update your will to include a Christian ministry that is effectively going into the world and making disciples? So this is a time for action today. This is important. We need to be good stewards of our resources. When we leave this world, we want to go out of this world honoring the Lord. And one of the practical steps we can take To ensure that we’re honoring the Lord at our passing is to honor him, beloved, with our resources by including a Christian ministry or ministries in our will or in our trust. So I just want to pray for us today. I just want to pray that we would truly get clarity on this, that we would take action and get prepared. Don’t let just inactivity paralyze you. Don’t be passive. Don’t listen to the message and say, yeah, that’s good, but not do anything. Beloved, let’s stand up. Let’s take a step. Let’s make a will or update our will and do what’s necessary to be good stewards of our resources and invest in the kingdom of God so that the great commission of Jesus to go into all the world can continue on even after you’re gone. Father, we offer our hearts to you right now. Lord, we love you and we honor you. And we want, Father God, to honor you even through our last breath. So if there’s specific wisdom that you wanna give anybody that’s listening right now to this broadcast, I just pray, Father, that you’ll give them that wisdom Father, that you’ll give them everything they need to take a step forward, to do what needs to be done, to honor you with the resources at their passing for your glory and for the honor of your name.

SPEAKER 01 : 21:44

Amen. And if the Lord is leading you to leave a legacy gift to discovering the Jewish Jesus through your will or estate, we’ve made an easy way for you to do it. Just go to our website, discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Click on resources and then need a will. We have a free tool right there. It’s called Free Will, and it’ll walk you through in simple, easy steps on how to create a will and how to leave a legacy behind to discovering the Jewish Jesus. It’s absolutely free and no cost to you. You can check it out with no commitment. So I encourage you, check it out today. And for those of you who already have a will or an estate plan, I encourage you, speak to your attorney if you’d like to leave a legacy gift to support the ongoing preaching of the gospel. God bless you and thank you for listening today, and thanks for being a good steward. And now here’s Rabbi with the Aaronic Blessing.

SPEAKER 02 : 22:40

In the book of Numbers chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, When you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartations of the Lord’s blessings.

SPEAKER 03 : 22:58

Yevarechech Yahweh, vayishmarecha. Yair Yahweh, panavelecha, vichunecha. Yissa Yahweh, penavei lecha, ve’asem lecha. Shalom.

SPEAKER 02 : 23:48

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.

SPEAKER 01 : 24:07

This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. And I’m your host, Dustin Roberts. Be sure to join us tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider shows us how God is revealed through his names. Each one reveals who he is and how he relates to us. That’s coming up Thursday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.